Sinistri Free Pulse Hapna Sweden 2005 A professional jazz drummer can swing a beat until it sounds like a county fair tilt-a-whirl tearing itself apart at the seams, and can still always manage to sneak in a kick on the three or a snare on two, just enough of a count to keep the rest of the band on time. Italy-based quartet Sinistri take this idea, and swing the swing, until all that's left of the beat is a pile of sharp and deconstructed remains that used to be 14 feet of spinning blue joy. Guitar, drums and synth are driven through a real-time DSP ("Digital Signal Processing") setup that cuts, rearranges, and processes the three instruments' syncopating jangle. Some tracks on the record really stand out, like the sinewy "Holes in Between," which is steered by a lazy, meandering guitar jam that perfectly suits the seemingly haphazard drumming. Although this band subscribes to a particular musical aesthetic as described in the "Sinistri Manifesto" ("The sound is a condition of the silence, the silence is a condition of the time"...see www.sinistri.org/philosophy/index.htm ), such ruminations would evade most. But damn, you don't need to figure out how they made this shit. Just enjoy the surgery. -James Hush Back Next